The Unknown
by Redcell2004
Summary: This is a story about the encounters and possible demise of UNSC troops during events in the Halo Universe . I may ask permission to use others characters if I am to use them but most likely I can make some up for my self (feel free to tell me how I'm doing. This is a small project of mine to improve my writing) Redcell out...
1. Chapter 1 (Ping Yu)

**Reynes, Unknown system  
27** **th** **May [UNKNOWN]  
Air Force – Rank: Senior Airman  
Ping Yu, Female.  
Halo Time: Pre-game  
Character by: Me  
** _ **This has been re-written as of 14/2/18**_

Ping sats in her albatross thinking back while flying along over the forests. She is: 24 with the height of 5ft with a ponytail tied at the back. She never saw the importance of delivering supplies though she always did them, that is considering she had been for 4 years now. In the back of the airship was a large amount of rations, ammo (though she never saw it used by anyone ever), and of course in military style more guns. The need for all this seemed to escape her, it was a mining planet after all and the military practically ran the place. The resources were important and new what they were as well since she was born into a small mining community. The area was reasonably close to the equator causing it to be quite warm while the aluminium, tantalum and copper was collected. Back in her early life she despised the idea of mining for the rest of her life so that led her to where she is now with an improved strength. This improved strength was due to her hours in the mine. She gets snapped out of her thoughts when she sees the base of in the distance It sat near one of the larger mining towns so after a minute or two of flying over the dense forest she takes it down slow. The lands it on one of the few landing pads before opening the doors to let the assigned personnel to take over before turning it off and hopping out the cockpit and onto the concrete before. It had been a long day and it felt great to be on the ground again after a day of ferrying supplies from the hub base down at Fayrock to wherever it was needed.

As night began to fall and the areas sun descended over the horizon as dusk arrived blanketing the base in black she stepped into the base being hit with a bright artificial light. Walking through some of the few hallways to the canteen chattering could be heard from the fellow soldiers that ended up sounding like monkeys. She went over to get her food picking between the different foods on offer before getting a simple Mac & Cheese and trying to locate her long time friend Cormag. After seeing him at the corner table, with very few others at it, she walked over to him and sat next to him. She'd known him since she was a kid when her parents had died when the mine had collapsed crushing them to death. He had been there to comfort her he always had he, unlike her, was 6ft with dark skin with a shaved head, small goatee beard and bright green eyes.  
"So…anything happen today for you then" Cormag said breaking the silence.  
"Not really, I flew supplies to and from various places." She said "How about you?"  
"Well for the most part it was just a lot of patrols, dead animals and poor humour to say the least of my day" He says before yawning "but now I have a chance to sleep and rest up for tomorrow so if you are done then we can walk down to the barracks."  
She hurriedly eats the last of my food before clearing up to walk down with Cormag before going our separate ways.  
"You know you could have been a courier if you'd wanted to." He says.  
She snorts "Yeah keep talking" She replies "If I'd known I might of. It'd be the same thing but different employers."  
"You know the ops centre has been going wild recently people with papers have been running round like headless chickens" He said "Something about missing deliveries satellites going haywire or up and disappearing."  
"Could just be some mistakes or loss of signal you know how gossip thrives around here, relax." She says "Well this is my stop I'll see you later."  
He just nods and goes to the male barracks while she goes to the female barracks. The barracks over all only houses 300 hundred people with it being such a small base it wasn't the best manned base in the region but it dissuaded most attacks.

Ping pushed open the door and walked down the line to where her bunk was before taking her gear of and pulling her self up the ladder and laying down but not before she checked something. She felt under the pillow to find her M6K Magnum under there still before collapsing under the covers and falling straight to sleep to the sounds of the continued monkey chatter.

After waking up about 5-6 o'clock she pulled her self out of bed feeling refreshed and ready for the day or whatever may been thrown at her. She then climbed back down to get dressed go to the toilet and have a shower before heading to the mess hall after getting back into her flight suit. She went to have breakfast and started noticing the activity first hand this time more intense than she had thought it was going to be. She sat next to Cormag to eat her cereal when he started talking.  
"You sure this is nothing or just a haywire satellite still then?" He said "this doesn't seem right something is up it."  
As soon as he'd said that an announcement came over the loud speaker.  
"All personnel stand by for orders and all pilots get to your aircraft as soon as possible." The voice said.  
She runs off to grab her helmet and Magnum before rushing through the doors out to the airstrip and to her Albatross before climbing in and intently waiting for a voice to crackle onto the radio.

A/N:The Albatross is the name of the crashed ship on the map Sandtrap in halo 3. Hope to those that have read this or who's first time is now reading it I hope you enjoyed Redcell Out.


	2. Chapter 2 (Ping Yu)

**Reynes, Unknown system**

 **27** **th** **May ?**

 **Air force-Senior Airman: Ping Yu, Female.**

 **Halo time: Pre-Game**

 **Character Created by: Me**

Running over to my ship I climb into the cockpit and check the systems: engines check, cargo bay doors check and fuel levels high. After I finished checking a voice crackled to life on the radio "Vulture 2-3 were sending some troops out to you now you're to drop them off in the small town just north of the base" command said. "What are we up against though sir" I replied. "We have covenant on the ground and we need the troops delivered to that location to reinforce the troops currently stationed there" command answered. "Fuck" I muttered "Ok sir the troops will be dropped of then I'll await further orders". "Affirmative vulture 2-3 command out" the radio then went silent. I opened the cargo bay doors and about 40 soldiers filed in to the back huddled together like penguins. Then I pressed a button that slowly closed the door to the cargo bay so I started to lift of and into the air with everyone starting to look like ants moving back over a part of the of the dense forest. For a moment everything seemed peace full with the trees waving below and the mountains just looking tranquil until a banshee shot of its bright blue plasma torpedo. With the large bulk of the albatross It couldn't turn fast enough to avoid it and it hit one off the engines melting away the metal and wiring. It started to spin heading towards the tall mountain going down at a rapid pace "brace for impact" I yelled loudly over the intercom before everything suddenly went black.

Dazed I looked up to the cracked windows with a smooth crack where my helmet hit the glass, slowly I stand up to look around and I open the door and see bodies laying on the floor with crimson blood and contorted broken bones. One of the doors was jammed on a pile of body's with the guy on top of the pile having the door smack into his already caved in skull. I stroll over to the outside of the door seeing the shallow chasm that the ship left on the way down. I check my vitals on my helmet showing that I have a minor concussion and a broken nose. Pulling out my magnum I check the amount of ammo I have left "shit 3 clips if I'm not careful I'm fucked" I softly said. Quickly seeing of there where any survivors I started walking out into the woods with my handgun in its holster listening to the slightest sound. Moving towards the nearest town I heard footsteps coming from nearby so I turned towards the noise seeing a couple of grunt minor's and a major. They didn't seem to have seen me yet so I snuck behind them and pulled out my magnum and aimed towards the grunt major holding a plasma and shoot him in the head with a spurt of electric blue blood flying out of the cavity of his skull. The other two follow suite and get hole shot with their blue blood flowing freely out of them but not before one of them sends a grass green molten plasma bolt towards me. It hits the tree I'm protecting myself with melting the wood and leaving it charred and burning away gradually. I walked over to the dead major and grab his plasma rifle and carefully started heading to the town more cautiously than before.

In the distance after about an hour of walking I make it to the town parched and tired seeing only corpses of the fallen with elites, fellow soldiers and the once inhabitants strewn around the place. The town is small with metal and wood huts covered in leaves, moss, vines and lastly blood of course. There are severed heads from the power and ferocity of the burning blue energy swords wielded by the now dead elites. The throat of one man was cut with the blood vessels still oozing a rose red blood and he was just one of the many with the same injury so to avoid the carnage and bloodshed I walked into an old, now abandoned, store. All of the food was gone all that was left were corpses then in heard a voice "don't move" and I heard a gun cock behind my head. The place seemed a lot less abandoned than before.

"Turn around slowly and with no sudden movements" The mysterious voice said. So slowly I turned around but after I did the figure gasped.

"Ping is that you?" He said "I thought I'd never see you again."

The figure stepped into the light showing a large gnash on his face with plasma burns outlining the cut with his blood clogging the wound. It was Cormag. The same Cormag who I bid my farewells to before going to my ship I was overjoyed he was alive.

"Its you oh my god its you how did you survive" I said before hugging him tightly "what happened." Well first you need to stop hugging me so I can breath." He calmly said. "Oh right sorry" I blushed.

"So what happened was after you left we had to go down here as there were reports of shootings going on here so naturally a small squad was sent here. However it was a trap that the covies had set up that killed all but me before they themselves were killed." He finished.

"We need to find a radio so we can relay this back to base, do you have a gun" I ask.

"Yes but I've only got a clip for my assault rifle" He points out "I'll follow you ok."

Walk out into the diming light available to us. Upon closer inspection I can see Cormag's blood soaked marine fatigues and torn sleeves while he holds up his MA5B assault rifle with large burns on them. We started to walk out into the forest with the only sound being crunching leaves and snapping twigs underneath our feet with no one friendly or otherwise around.

Night eventually descended with still no event's happening and nothing seen but unending lush green trees and small brown sticks on the dirt. It had been hours since we were last at the small town and were eventually greeted with a welcome sign with plasma burns in it. Fayrock the small yet beating heart of the planet with just over a quarter of a million inhabitants living there and now with probably far less. In the distance we saw a green civilian evacuation ship fly into the sky indicating the UNSC's awareness of the gravity of the situation. The buildings were crumbling due to explosives and warfare in the city. Quietly we moved into a old hotel that was somehow intact unlike the inhabitants but due to overwhelming fatigue I needed to sleep. "We need to stop now its late we won't be able to see anything and we've been walking for hours" I say, "Take these I say."

I toss him some keys and he just slowly nods his head and he walk to one of the empty rooms in the hotel upstairs. Next I take myself a set of keys and walk up to the top floor to room 77 just 2 down from Cormag's room. I walk into the room and see a soft white bed unlike any back at base and take of my helmet and just collapse onto it falling into a deep sleep.

 **May 28 ?**

I wake up feeling parched and starving so I pull out a bottle of coke and a cheese sandwich and just sit there and eat. Afterwards I put on my flight helmet and walk into the brightly lit sun filled corridor knock on Cormag's door. He opens the door groggily with a half eaten chocolate bar in his mouth.

"What" He groaned "let me sleep"

"We've got to go help the others come on" I say

"Fine" He says before closing the door coming out 5 minutes later with his assault rifle.

We walk down the stairs and look out of the large glass windows to see covenant patrols and barricades set up...

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this sorry it took a while to do there was other stuff going on. See ya round :)


	3. Chapter 3 (Ping Yu)

**Reynes, Unknown system**

 **28** **th** **May ?**

 **Air force-Senior Airman: Ping Yu, Female.**

 **Halo time: Pre-Game**

 **Character Created by: Me**

The outside of the hotel was crawling with covenant with even huge purple wraiths moving up and down gliding along the long uninhabited roads. Patrols walked along the streets and a burning smoke moves along the open blue sky with a giant purple corvette hanging in the atmosphere.  
"What do we do know" Ping whispers as quietly as possible "There all over the streets and they have the fire power and numbers to defeat a considerable assault force."  
"We could take the roof exit the top floor looked to have had some maintenance or construction going on the top few floors" he replies "if were lucky we might be able to get across to the other buildings."  
"Where do we go from there?" Ping responds  
"We keep moving till we make it to one off the checkpoints or temporary bases they set up before they got overrun" He answers.  
With that we crouch around up to the higher floors to make our exit using the stairs as the cities power had gone out and the doors were laced with plasma burns. After a while of silently and swiftly moving up the vacant floors we make it the top few and sure enough it was being repaired. One of the rooms doors stood ajar with paint and step ladders in it along with two appropriately sized wooden planks.  
"They should work right the buildings aren't to far apart we can go at least a few buildings with this" Cormag says.  
We then each drag a plank along the hotel and up the last couple of floors mutely and up onto the open roof before laying them out to the other building it lands with a light thump. I give Cormag a thumbs up for him to crawl across to the other side with which he does with ease before I follow suite and crawl across pulling the boards along with me at the other side. Looking down the activity seemed to be gradually getting less the further from the cities outskirts we got as if they were guarding it.

Once again we lay the boards to the other side without making a sound this time to get to the other side once again following routine I pull the boards I after me. Cormag grabs my arm and points at a pair of jackals oblivious to us and then points at a small stack of bricks and then back at them. I nodded knowing what he wanted me to do. He wanted me to go with him and smash them over the head. The crystal clear reason for this is to not waste ammo or make a loud noise so along with him we I move towards them the closer I get the higher I raise the bulky brick. One of them turn as Cormag has tapped a stone on the way and with that we simultaneously smash it across there face. A thick purple blood spurts out off its head as the brick shatters its skull killing it instantly with it falling to the ground with a slight thud. Cormag on the other hand caught it in the eye blinding it and causing it to drip the same thick purple blood but before it could make a sound he smashes it again causing a cracking sound to be heard. The remaining jackal stumbles after Cormag's attack off the roof into an alleyway with a crack and squelch oozing blood profusely. This leaves Ping and Cormag covered in a deep purple blood and holding a grisly murky purple stained brick on a roof with two beam rifles laying on the floor we both pick up. Ping takes a deep breath and sighs deeply before moving to the last building on the street and going across it more boldly now everything had quieted down. They then pull the boards down and yank open the metal door leading to the inside of the building stepping in a ghastly smell of decaying blood can be seen along with the bodies of soldiers and civilians littered along the floor.

The corridor has bullet holes and plasma scars littering the walls and those that died here alike. There were people laying dead on operating tables and stretchers and of course the floor it seemed that this was once either a hospital or makeshift infirmary but it didn't matter it was trashed and empty.  
"Fucking hell looks like they lost a hell of a battle" Cormag says breaking the deathly silence "There's nothing we can do for them except report there deaths to command".  
With that we step over the mangled bodies to the fire exit where on the stairs Grunts, Jackals and Elites lay dead and draped on the stairs covering the walls and floors with bright blue and purple. They continue down the stairs to the ground floor continuing to see bodies and blood. Once at the bottom Cormag points out a weapon and ammo crate so he stocks up on ammo and I swap out the plasma rifle for a DMR and she like him stocks up on ammo.  
"We should get going towards the outpost about 250m away from our location" He says.  
"How do you know this" Ping asks.  
"Data pad" He responds "We got given the location so we could move up after clearing the are we dropped of at"  
Ping nods and pulls out her magnum and moves towards the glass doors and pushes it open quietly and looks out onto the street. She signals him to follow her and they move slowly across the street using cars and burnt out military vehicles towards a large open office building 'Brent and Trent publishing'. They move into it with paper littering the floor but not corpses and through to the back exit door that is open like the entrance.  
"150 meters" Cormag informs her.  
They move to an alleyway were a lone grunt can be seen humming to itself but they had to kill it to move to the outpost Ping looks round as for obvious reasons she had dropped the brick back on the roof. She looks round to see a long sharp pointed piece of glass amidst the paper on the floor a picks it up with the sides of it digging into her gloved hands causing her to feel a slight pressure.

Ping slowly makes her way with Cormag behind her toward the grunt past toppled bins and the rubbish on the floor before reaching it after a short while. She grabs its head under the gas mas and rams the shimmering tip deep into its throat causing a rocket of bright blue blood gushes out of the edges of the stab wound. She pulls it out causing the Grunt to flail around the floor chocking on its own blood before it becomes still on the floor. Ping drops the makeshift knife on the floor making a small drip sound as it fall into the pool of blood leaving her a bright set of colours adding blue to the purple and black.  
"Lets get going were almost there" Ping says after a short silence.  
The pair walks down the road ducking and shuffling along till they see a forest green tent set up with a makeshift fence around it along with a mongoose and a few other tents and ammo stores. Once again like many other place in the city bodies were scattered all around but with them used to it they work there way into a small metal trailer with sandbags laced with red. They open the door to see all the radio equipment in perfect working condition with a lone marine slumped on it presumably the one who was in charge of this area. Cormag leans his assault rifle against the table and gets to work moving the marine onto the floor gently and puts on the headset and powers up the radio.  
"Hello anybody copy this is Corporal Cormag Arkema at outpost Romero 4-3" he says into the microphone.  
"We read you Corporal what is your situation" respond the person on the other side.  
"Were inside Fayrock the entire city is overrun with covenant they are all around the perimeter of the city" Cormag says.  
"Roger that" They say "We can provide evac for you about 5 miles outside the city" They say "Do you have a form of transport?"  
"Affirmative we have a mongoose outside" He says "Send the location over to my data pad and we'll meet you there". 

With that Cormag takes of the headset and picks up the assault rifle and looks at her.  
"Lets go there's only so long they can be held off we need to go now" He says to her. With that they step outside right as a small covenant patrol goes past and a Elite Major looks directly looks at them and appears to tell his troops to attack. Green and blue bolts of plasma whiz past there heads as Cormag runs to the cover along with Ping while firing there guns at them. The group attacking them was an elite major and a few grunts and a couple of jackals. Ping peaks up and takes a few shots toward the grunts before a shot lands directly into ones skull killing it and causing one of them to run in fear. Cormag also looks up and fires his assault rifle towards the pair of jackals wielding shields and hitting it in the hand before unloading into its chest but the other one send a shot toward him. He gets hit in the shoulder causing him to fall back as it burns into its skin while he screams out a blood curdling scream while they move closer and closer towards there position. Ping shoots as precisely as possible taking another one of the grunts out after hitting it in the chest a few times but it wasn't enough they kept moving forward. Cormag pulls himself up wincing with an unbearable pain and shoots killing the last grunt and wounding the last jackal. The elite lets out a deafening roar as it pulls out a energy sword and charges towards Cormag. We both unload onto him causing his energy shield to crackle but not break and it impales Cormag lifting him into the air while he screams with a dark crimson blood flowing out as the sword gets pulled out. He falls with a clunk with his eyes open and expression in a pained look motionless and not breathing. Ping stood stunned and frozen with a deep rage building up inside her causing her to shoot it in the head over and over. This causes the shield to crackle as it ran towards her while she shoots. Then her clip runs dry and just clicks. She throws the gun at it and pulls out her magnum and shoots taking down its shield but not killing it before she is run through. She hangs there feet off the ground stunned and coughing her life flashing before her eyes. Her childhood, family, training, friends and her resent events flash by in a second before slamming onto the ground breathing uneven and pained breaths to provide oxygen into her pierced lungs. She coughs and like Cormag stops moving and she closes her eyes and takes her last breath and then gone...

A/N: This was the end of Ping and Cormag in there battle on Reynes a mining planet that is part of the official lore. All events and characters are made up by me. All I own are the characters and the events that unfolded were of my own imagination. I hope those that read this enjoyed this and there will be more short stories added here eventually so stay tuned.

Redcell2004


	4. Chapter 4 (Eric Sanchez)

**Bounty, Unknown system  
17** **th** **July 2535  
Navy – Rank: Petty Officer First Class  
Eric Sanchez, Male.  
Age: 32  
Halo Time: Pre-game  
Character by: Me**

Eric opened his eyes groggily rolling over he looks at his watch and it displays in its bright digital way 5:03am. With that he groaned and decided he should probably get up now rather that later to get ready and have a bit longer to eat in the mess hall. So with that he pulled on his navy blue camo uniform and his matching cap. He then puts his boots on and ties the laces and pulls himself up of the bottom bunk of the bed looking around the room. Lots of the others seemed to be asleep or, like he was, pulling themselves out of there identical beds. Eric stands up and starts walking out into one of the many long and winding corridors of the UNSC Dragonstar down to his intended location the mess hall. He goes through the large unlocked metal doors and grabs his food from the food tables. He then proceeded to locate and sit with his small group of friends comprised of people he'd known for most of his time in the navy. The first was Ajit Támas he was: dark skinned with brown eyes and had a black dark cropped hair, 30 years of age and often sarcastic and making jokes in the wrong situations. He'd known him since boot camp he was higher ranked than him being a Senior Chief Petty Officer but had been doing this the same amount of time than him. However this may be due to his natural leadership and people skills he lacked unlike Eric's slightly poorer leadership.

Next from the group was Toria Nemes a Caucasian white female with grey dull eyes and was the youngest out of all of them at 25 years old. Her hair was a darker blond close to brown but not quite and kept it her hair in a neat ponytail. She stood out in the group as she was the most energetic and happy person Eric had ever met and possibly ever in Eric's opinion. She was always making jokes good or bad and was also trained to be medic to help out any that may be wounded continuing her constant personal mission of making peoples lives better. Toria however was ,out of all of them, the lowest rank being a Petty Officer Third Class and had spent the least time as part of the UNSC at 3 years. Last was Christin Nacar a tanned 27 year old Petty Officer Second Class who Eric and Ajit had known longer than Toria yet knew less about her. She was by far the most serious out of all of them quiet and reserved causing them to not be able to get much out of her. She was ,unlike many would expect, was quick to anger by anything from someone's stupidity to a bug that lingered around her area. She out of all of them had been here the longest at 7 years with the only possible reason for not being the highest rank is her constant uncontrollable anger.  
"So what's up guys anything new going on" Toria said.  
"Nope" Everyone replies one after each other.  
"Nothing?" Toria said "nothing at all nothing to spark a conversation. Nothing happened at all."  
"Sometimes no talk is better than small talk" Christin answers bluntly.  
For some time the group sat there eating there personal meals while conversation buzzed all around them in silence for quite some time before Ajit broke it.  
" The Covenant could arrive possibly at anytime they are closing in planet after planet getting closer to Reach and Earth" Ajit states  
"Though it may be inevitable its our job to slow them down as much as possible to hopefully save as many lives as possible" Christin said  
They all nodded in agreement and spoke for the rest of the meal about anything they could think of ranging from past experiences to preferred meals they'd had here.

After they finished he said his goodbyes before he went on the long walk to the head of the ship to the bridge to do his assigned job of managing and operating one of the Mac on the outside of the ship. All was shown to be in optimal condition an fully topped up on ammo and after he finished his checks and started monitoring the ships systems and the vast empty space outside. He was doing for hours getting bored until he got a message on his console to go down to communications to collect and deliver a file for the Commander of the ship, Commander Daniel Smith. Eric gets up from his seat and gets one of the other bridge crew members that were standing idle to watch his console for him while he's gone for a minute. Once a soldier sits to watch it he dashes out the door and down the corridors in a quick jog causing a rapid thud on the floor to an Officer holding a relatively thin folder.  
"Take this down to the Commander of the ship its of utmost importance." the Officer said while Eric nods knowing the importance of the task at hand.  
With that he almost borderline running dashes swiftly down the metallic corridors holding onto the file with a death like vice grip before, out of breath, handing in the file to the Commander. The Commander reads through it with each sentence making his eyes widen till they looked like they'd pop out at any second.

He then handed the thin folder back to him and started walking at a quickened pace out and towards communications and once he'd left he read the file. It read: 'At 0300 hours a longsword patrol was flying around the airspace nearby when it was engaged by a small banshee reconnaissance team. They were swiftly taken care of however an attack may be inevitable and with one longsword slightly we may not have a substantial enough defence force. This force isn't likely enough to defend a planet and ourselves and any outside help is to far out or risking another planet. We may be on our own for this one.' Eric's own eyes widened as he read this and jumped slightly when a red light started flashing and on his screen red hostile markers appeared everywhere dotting the screen. Looking out the windows a huge covenant armada was out there littering large specs of purple through out space. Then the Commanders voice could be heard through the speakers...


	5. Chapter 5 (Eric Sanchez)

**Bounty, Unknown system**

 **17** **th** **July 2535**

 **Navy – Rank: Petty Officer First Class**

 **Eric Sanchez, Male**

 **Age: 32  
Halo Time: Pre-game**

 **Character by: Me**

He knew his time was soon it was the same for every other planet, every other person and anything else that stood in there way. It wouldn't be to long now. Battle protocols will be set into motion and they will be merely corpses floating among the scrapped jagged metal. He new he was pessimistic but his entire life was about to be changed and he just didn't give a fuck. They needed to know it was important he doubted he was supposed to know yet but he needed to tell them so they were all ready. He new they already knew the commander went on the loudspeakers but they needed the details something they wouldn't be told. He went through the large metal corridors that were full of people now so he had go through the bustling crowd just to track them down knowing them they were probably down at the barracks were they usually were right about now. He finally got past the mess hall and the armory to the center of the ship on the second floor before he opened the door to see them pulling on their body armor, that was a matte black, on them. Then he made the decision to put his on before he went to tell them about the report. After he had finished putting on his light armor he went over to them to tell them the news. He went to the nearest person Ajit.  
"Hey you hear what happened over the intercom" Eric asked.  
"Yeah that's why were loading up we're about to head to the armory to load up you should to just in case" Ajit replies.  
"Right sounds like a plan" He replied 

Him and the rest of his friends went down to the armory to get their weapons and once they arrived the went down the separate sections. His first destination was were they kept the assault rifles to try find the MA5B Variant of the rifle due to it being his preferred main weapon of choice after he ran round to the Magnum isle to find the M6D. Once he'd got the guns he went round stuffing multiple clips into his bandolier that had pockets surrounding it with his pocket knife on it and the leather handgun holster. Then Toria came over to Eric.  
"You know were likely to get support because this is it before Reach and we all know how important it is" She says "So whatever happens even if we all die then at least we can hopefully stop them."  
"Yeah you're right whatever happens we did something ,yeah everything will work out" Eric responds before quietly mumbling "I hope."  
"Hey if you're done having your little romance we need to get going at you Eric need to get back to the bridge" Said Christin  
"Right I completely forgot about that see you later" He says before running back through the corridors slightly more embarrassed than planned on.

Once again Eric had to make the annoying trip off trying to get through the corridors and up the floors back up to were the rest off the crew up there were rushing around frantically like ants. Then he found the guy who was covering his post and the soldier got up and pointed at the red blips before rushing off to join the people in the corridors. He sat down pulled in the headset and got the MAC gun in position before firing on the blips till they were no more but that didn't stop the tidal wave of them that flooded the screen. Once he'd seen that he started firing in rapid succession over and over but that wasn't enough to stop them it didn't seem anything could. The red warning lights of damage kicked in and signaled evacuation.

"Alright Everybody all personnel report to your designated evacuation location and be prepared to leave" the voice over the intercom said.

Eric stood up and opened one of the pockets on his uniform and pulled out a small metal walkie-talkie that had the black paint faded around the edges from years of use.  
"Hey guys you around we need to get going this ship is suffering a lot of damage and I don't know how much more damage the Dragonstar can take we need to head to pod 562" Eric said over the radio.

"Alright we'll meet you there" Ajit replies.  
Eric then takes off down the corridors along with many others so they could make it off the ship before it is completely destroyed with the sound of boots clanging on metal and orders being shouted filling his ears. Then a blast comes from one of the doors knocking him back slightly and warming him slightly with ringing now adding to the growing list filling his ears he stands up to see many wounded being carried down the corridor leaving a faint trail of red blood. He then makes it to the long row of pods and climbs in seeing his friends and sitting among them before the doors close and the pod starts to power up.  
"Everybody buckle up were gonna be dropping 15 Klicks away from the nearest located covenant assault force" The pilot said.

Taking a deep breath before it launches Eric braced for the worst and the it launched sending them into the vast, empty and deadly reaches of space only to see other drop pods being shot down out the doors windows. The pod starts to shake causing him to hold onto the harness for dear life and flames of the pod entering atmosphere appear on the wind shield and the ground is seen rapidly closing in heading towards a city.  
It shakes more and more before it the air-brakes deploy it slows down only for it to slam into a building and stop on one of the floors stuck on the broken wood floors. The doors get remotely opened by the pilot and as do the harnesses and everyone stands up and pulls out their weapons and jumps out the doors with a clunk onto the floor.  
"There is some good news and some bad news which one do you want to hear first" Toria said to the group of survivors.  
"Lets hear the good news then" said Soldier 1.  
"Well we are in a covenant held city" She replies.

"That's not good how in anyway could that be better than the bad news" Soldier 2.  
"Well the bad news is we are the only pod that ended up here as the marker malfunctioned

so you know if you'd let me finish you would know that they aren't close to us according to the radar" Toria says slightly more annoyed.  
The pilot sighed "We should get moving then try link up with other forces cause they can't evacuate us here". 

The group nodded and pulled out a box of survival gear from the pod and opened it up to find: food, ammo for common weapons, flare guns, water and suppressors that every one took before leaving the box and heading to the doorway. One of the marines headed to the door and peaked round before indicating it was safe and the rest of them followed his lead and covered all angles and made sure none of them could sneak up on them.  
"Hey I'll have a look from the roof to survey the surroundings but first we should link our radios together so we can stay in contact" said soldier 2.

They then linked there radios together and the soldier heads up the stairs while the rest of them comb through the building for any enemies but there were none so they headed to the receptions staff room and stayed low and waited for a response. They sat on the sofas and looked through one of the vending machines and ate some snacks such as SpiceParty Crisps while they waited so they wouldn't get wiped out as soon as they left.  
"Hey I've been looking around for a bit there are no snipers some grunt patrol teams but they are moving a Wraith down the road so we should wait for a while before going out. I'm coming back down now see y'all in a bit" Informs Soldier 2.

Now I don't know why but I was putting of publishing this chapter I don't know why but it happened and was done three months ago. so why upload now? Because I don't want this story to die before it gets a proper life and will only stop it once a character is done and I have announced it as so in a note style chapter. Sorry for the long wait and I hope it was worth it the other chapter was also partially done 3 months ago and will be finished soon :)

-Redcell


	6. Chapter 6 (Eric Sanchez)

**Bounty, Unknown system**

 **17th July 2535**

 **Navy – Rank: Petty Officer First Class**

 **Eric Sanchez, Male**

 **Age: 32  
Halo Time: Pre-game**

 **Character by: Me**

The group sat around for hours and waited chatting but still being quiet there were 8 of them:

Toria Nemes, Ajit Tamas, Christin Nacar, Himself, Lugas Rothschild [Soldier 1], Harduwich Whitaker [Soldier 2], Peter Homes [Soldier 3] and Kata Corti [The Pilot]. This was there group they were the only ones here and they needed to work together or they were royally fucked and they knew it. Lugas was the highest ranked here so he was in charge and he seemed reasonable enough so they didn't seem to mind and no one here knew each other at all, excluding Eric's friends. The clock in the room had passed by 3 hours and it was now 6:43pm and dark now.  
"Hey guys we should probably go now its dark so it will be harder for them to see us now" Peter suggested.  
"Yeah he's right if we go now even if they have a tank it won't be able to spot us as easy" Christin added.  
"Alright lets go just follow my lead" Lugas said.  
Toria opened the door slowly with her pistol pointed at the door before moving up to the desk and peaking with everyone else moving up behind her and after Lugas moved up to the door and opened it out. Then he indicated the rest of them to move up to the alley so they dashed swiftly over to the bins behind one of the buildings and waited for anything to pass or happen but it didn't so they kept moving. They passed through the city with relative ease till they came across a small grunt patrol made up of 4 minors and 1 major wielding a needler so Lugas whispered a suggestion "We could take them out or let them pass."

"Lets take them out less chance of them catching up to us later" Harduwich replied.  
The rest of the team nodded and checked that they all had suppressors on their guns and then Lugas held up three fingers and counted down 3...2...1...then they attacked. Eric pointed his magnum at the major and shot him in the head three times causing its head to be ripped back and its sky blue blood flew out in jets while the rest of the team unloaded into the minors.

Blood ran down the alley way like neon on signs slightly lighting up the streets and leaving a flowing stream from their bodies to the end of the alley. They moved round the bodies after the engagement to continue before it got any lighter and they were exposed and were assaulted by the occupying force. They moved to a currently abandoned apartment building to get some rest so they would have enough energy to get alive to help the other force outside the city because there was nothing left there. They made it to the complex and went and broke the lock to the landlords office to get keys to the first 8 apartments for them to get rest Eric went and looked through draws to find a rack of spare keys on a board behind a picture.  
"Hey I've got the keys for the rooms so we can gets some rest" Eric said.  
"Nice it might be more comfortable to sleep in a proper bed" Toria mentions.

"There not ours but yeah, they've got to be more comfortable just might feel weird" Harduwich Said.  
"Alright guys get some rest we'll be up 5 o'clock sharp alright" Lugas said finally

Then they all nodded and walked to separate rooms and Eric walked into his and locked the door and slid the chain across and sat down on old black leather sofa and closed his eyes and taking a deep breath. He went over to the fridge and pulled out a lukewarm beer and sat back down in silence drinking before finally getting up and laying in bed and drifting to a restless sleep.

 **18th July 2535**

Eric woke up in the early morning and looked at his digital beeping watch showing 4:30am, sighing and closing his eyes again before getting up and stretching due to not taking off his armor or armaments. It'd been a long experience and he really didn't need to be awake other than to look around the deserted halls that lacked the previous life it once had and to be honest gave him some time to think. He, of course thought about what had transpired recently, but also if they were going to make it out and how. The airspace was in lighter terms not the greatest place to be out in with banshees and genocidal aliens out to get humanity, the roads were packed and this was one of the larger cities so the outskirts were a long way to go. With all the pessimism out the way going back to bed would best unless he had a strong coffee but even after being only slightly awake he remembered this time to remove his armor.

As the later morning sun crept and jumped through the skyscrapers pushing back the soldiers of the night to only the furthest corners the rest of the group rose wearily and pushed their way out into the lobby rearmed and reawakened. After a small very one sided plan was made to contact any one who could possibly aid them later down the line or even to leave this place as at the end of the day either could change the sands of fate. They would push through the outlying buildings towards the town square where they could find help, trouble or a way out but obviously there was the threat they would encounter a large force that they wouldn't have the man power to fight. At this point it seemed to be their best hope and so they started there journey out into the frozen in time midday traffic that it's self could bring people to a death of boredom but it was not the cause here. Shards of sparkling shards with outlines of blood from the red painted windows and chassis of the vehicles around seemed sprinkled and frequent but not as frequent as mangled corpses under wheels and on the bonnet of said vehicles.

It was one of those sights that you just can't quite get out of your mind after seeing. It was a horrific car crash with no survivors and the one rear ending them was a hail of heated colored plasma. The only sign of fight were the minuet amount of brass glistening pistol casings around but who fired the gun was either gone or was tucked under the self made piles in the panic. But strangely enough was there was that one person. No military. Nothing. Everyone was gone there was no evidence of any UNSC presence in a main city of all places. The main target for the covenant and bastion of hope for those who resided in here with aid from the army and all other branches. However dire the situation a faint sound of hope could be heard of from one of the few natural zones here.

It was a near inaudible sound for the human ear but it was there. An engine resembling that of a pelican. They were saved but only if pointed out.

"Hey everyone listen" he says causing everyone to halt and the glass crunching to stop, " that to me sounds like out way out."

Everyone nodded and drew the mix matched assortment weapons the group had and stepped out to the softer greener grass than the sharper clear glass and moved by the thick brambles and oaks. The closer the louder till they could see it. A small group with a pelican preparing to move so they knew what they had to do. They stepped out the park into the streets and lowered there weapons once their arrival caused expected hostility but once everyone was recognized as friendly everyone moved away and joined the other group. A man that had a thick beard and a pony tail walked up to Eric, who can only be assumed to be a sergeant due to his insignia, had only a small bit to say.

"Your just in time we were about to leave, welcome abroad" and with that he and everyone else climbed abroad leaving Eric till last. And with that they were off rising higher into the sky above the skyline of the city and out into whatever lays beyond.

A/N: Right so the first half of this was already done and months have passed once again and its late a night and I'm tired. But hopefully for anyone who was anticipating this it was good enough and for the love of god if you read this thank you so much but I am and awful writer. Remember my last author not about "not letting it die before it has had a life" well now I aim to make chapters as UN-Cliffhanger-y as I possibly can as so if I never write for it again that like all the other stories I've read that are really good but discontinued. But I don't feel I'm ready to kill this yet or at least intentionally.

I apologize for rambling for so long but I do have other projects in the works that some may like however they will be shorter stories as I find it hard to write longer stories consistently over any period of time and would likely only have one chapter. But I digress. Have a good rest of your day :)

-Redcell


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